Frederic C. Billingsley
Encyclopedia
Digital image processing
Digital image processing is the use of computer algorithms to perform image processing on digital images. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing...
in support of American space probes to the moon, to Mars, and to other planets.
Billingsley published two papers in 1965 using the word pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
, and may have been the first to publish that neologism for picture element.
He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and died in Great Falls, Montana.
Image processing contributions
Billingsley was one of the pioneers of digital image processingDigital image processing
Digital image processing is the use of computer algorithms to perform image processing on digital images. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing...
mentioned in "THE BEST OF NASA'S SPINOFFS," which says:
There also was a need for hardware to record both analog video and digital images on film. No suitable commercial hardware existed, so JPL's Fred Billingsley designed a system called the Video Film Converter (VFC). Built for JPL by Link General Precision, the VFC was used in the 1970s for image playback of the striking pictures returned by the planetary missions of the unmanned Mariner spacecraft.
The JPL document "Overview of VICAR" shows that Billingsley did software as well as hardware:
The VICAR image processing language was defined by JPL employees Stan Bressler, Howard Frieden and Fred Billingsley, and implemented in 1966 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to process image data produced by the planetary exploration program.
External links
- Pixel History talk dedicated to Fred Billingsley